A/N: Sorry this is late again; I'm starting to think I am kind of an unreliable person? But regardless, I really don't have much to say about this chapter, just that I made myself sad while writing it?

End of Days

It was late afternoon when Aaroniero came to call, and Nnoitra was engaged in doing quite a lot of nothing; he was bullying his subordinates, of course, but at the time that the schizophrenic mask-maker arrived he wasn't actively torturing, demeaning, or dehumanizing any of his followers. In fact, he was simply lounging around in the room reserved for him and his aides, the room on the fifth floor of the Las Noches building, flipping a pocketknife through the air and catching it by the blade, following the weapon's trajectory with his single, narrow eye. His customary grin was gone from his face, replaced with a blank look of sheer boredom, and he thought that if nothing exciting happened soon he might go out and kill more than time, just for the heck of it.

Something did happen however, and the door to his room swung open after a very clipped-sounding knock. The few people under Nnoitra's jurisdiction who happened to be in the room had various reactions to the opening of the door, some flinching at the bang made by the doorknob hitting the wall, others twisting around with weapons at the ready, but Nnoitra simply stood with a sneer as his dichotomized coworker let himself into the room.

"Nnoitra," Aaroniero greeted curtly, with a sharp, jerky nod. He was tense, almost twitchy; it was possible that he had been shooting drugs before he came, but unlikely. He was simply wound up, Nnoitra thought, excited.

"Well?" the taller of the two men snapped after a pause, not bothering to return the greeting, "Are you ready? What did you find out? How soon can I go?"

"Patience," the dark haired disguise-master replied smoothly, "May I sit down?"

"Do what you want," Nnoitra answered, "Just hurry the fuck up."

Aaroniero gave his companion a wan smile and took his seat deliberately, his eyes on Nnoitra's face the whole time, taunting the other man with his silence; he knew the one-eyed man was eager for blood, knew that he was very nearly going crazy with anticipation, and at last Aaroniero decided not to torment him any longer.

"I watched them for a long time," the informant began, running a hand through his short, dark hair, "I learned their habits and their patterns, and none of them noticed me. Or if they did, they did not recognize me for who I am. I am very good at hiding my face."

"Don't I know it," Nnoitra muttered.

"They don't stick strictly to any schedule, but they seem wary; they go out little, and for the most part, four of the five living in the bar stay in the building during the day. If they go out, it's at night, so I suggest a strike at dusk, or maybe a bit past noon. Either time is fine. As to how soon you can go, as soon as you're ready," Aaroniero smirked as a wide grin spread across Nnoitra's face at the news, the tall man spinning in his chair to look at his men.

"You hear that, fuckers?" he crowed to his subordinates, "There'll be blood soon! Plenty of it, plenty soon,"

The ensuing cheers left Aaroniero struggling to stifle an insane grin of his own.

…..

The bar was relatively quiet; Tesla was back in his office, Menoly was up in her room, and Yoruichi was out on a date with Kisuke. The only ones out in the taproom were Soi Fon, who was trying to read, and Ggio, who was doing his best to make her stop.

"Soi Fon~" he dragged out the syllables of her name as he leaned in close to her, his braid swinging behind him, the strands around his face coming loose and hanging in his eyes, "Come on, look this way…"

"Too close," the woman reprimanded as her companion very nearly touched her cheek with his nose. Rather than backing off he, closed the distance further, turning his head to press his cheek against hers; she could feel his grin as he noticed her stiffen at their proximity.

"What do you mean, 'too close'?" he laughed quietly, "You didn't exactly have a problem before, now did you?"

Soi Fon didn't answer, her eyes trained on the pages of her book, though for all her efforts she wasn't taking in any of the words. How could she, when Ggio was going out of his way for her attention. Exasperated, she snapped her novel shut.

"You're really distracting," she grumbled at the ochre-eyed man, unwilling to turn in his direction. He pushed up against her playfully, his smile widening.

"Who, me? Never," he protested sarcastically as she leaned into him to avoid being knocked off her chair.

"Ggio!" Soi Fon cried, smothering her laughter as the man suddenly stopped putting pressure on her, causing her to tumble into his lap.

"What?" he asked, mockingly innocent despite the wild light in his eyes as he ran his fingers through the shorter part of her hair; his lilting smile reappeared, no longer able to be suppressed as he looked down at her.

"Well, aren't you two cozy," another voice joined from the top of the stairs, and the pair glanced up to see Menoly leaning over the railing, smirking at them. Soi Fon flushed, but didn't move, and Ggio only chuckled.

"Cozy indeed, little sis. Jealous?"

"Not particularly," the blonde woman dismissed, traipsing her way down the steps, "After all, I distinctly remember you crushing the air out of me when we were younger, Ggio-nii; I've been way too close to you a few times before, yeah?"

"I remember too," Ggio snorted with amusement, "Are you referring to the time I sat on you after you cut my bangs while I was asleep?"

"Yup," the blonde had reached the bottom of the stairs, her fingers looped through the chain of a silver crucifix that was almost always hidden beneath the collar of Tesla's shirt; Menoly caught Ggio looking at it and grinned, almost sheepishly, "The thing was tarnished, so I took it from him to clean it."

"Such a caring girl," Ggio smirked, "Cleaning her brother's jewelry."

"Well, you know…. Tes is always really busy, so I figured I'd do it. It's nice and clean now, see-"

For a moment Soi Fon thought the world had exploded as Menoly's words cut off in the hideous, shuddering sound of rapid gunfire and the shriek of shattering glass. Ggio, acting instinctively, wrapped himself around the woman who had been draped across him as he threw the both of them to the floor; he pushed the table over as they fell, using it as a barricade as shards of glass and wood splintered through the air. Soi Fon gasped as they hit the floor, in mingled shock, horror and pain, her elbow jarring against the hard wood. She felt Ggio shift over her, pulling his gun from its hidden holster and placing his hand on top of her head to keep her low.

"Fuck," she heard him mutter, blood streaked glass tinkling to the floor almost musically; the dark haired woman glanced up to see her companion pull another piece of glass from his forearm with a thin slithering sound as it left his flesh crimson running over his wrist.

The firing continued, deafeningly loud in comparison to the companionable silence that had been enjoyed only moment earlier. The front windows were destroyed, the front door hanging off its hinges and falling into splinters under the rain of bullets; the heady scent of gunsmoke was almost intoxicating. Soi Fon allowed herself a look over where Menoly had been standing and promptly turned away, feeling sick filled with sorrow.

The pretty young blonde had been blown nearly to pieces, having been in the direct line of fire when the shooting had started. Her blood was soaking over the dark wooden boards beneath her, staining them red, red like her skin, like her clothes, like her hair. The woman had been practically bathed in the color, riddled with black holes and random patches of white where shattered bone pierced through her flesh. The only consolation Soi Fon could take from looking at the body was that Menoly couldn't have felt much in her dying moments; her life would have ended in seconds, her body having been filled with that much lead in so short a time.

A short distance away, she could see the silver crucifix glittering in a pool of cerise fluid.

"Ggio," Soi Fon took a shuddering breath as she spoke, her words hardly audible as she turned back to him, "Ggio, Menoly's-"

"Don't say it," the ochre-eyed man commanded, his voice hard, "Just don't. I already know. And these bastards are gonna pay for it."

Even as Soi Fon opened her mouth to say something else- she wasn't quite sure what, not when the world was going insane like it was- there came a wild, grief-stricken cry from behind them. The pair turned, Ggio having just fired a couple of return shots, to see Tesla stumbling from where he had been in the back room, his single eye fixed where his sister lay like a broken doll. The blonde man staggered forward disbelievingly, his gun forgotten in his hand, heedless of the bullets still coming through the window.

"Menoly," he was moaning, "Ah, God no, Menoly, Menoly…."

"Tesla, don't!" Ggio cried as Soi Fon pushed herself into sitting position, hissing as a sliver of glass sliced across her palm; she watched, helpless as Tesla took a bullet to his thigh, his knees buckling for an instant before he lurched forward again, intent on nothing but reaching his fallen sibling, "You're going to get yourself killed!"

With that, Ggio ran at a crouch to where Tesla stood and wrapped his arms around the taller man's waist, dragging him away with strength Soi Fon didn't know he had. The blonde fought tooth and nail, struggling to get away from his friend, his cries rising in volume until Ggio shoved him up against the bar and waved Soi Fon over; the bar was thicker than the table they had been bunking behind, made of granite rather than wood, but even that seemed as fragile as matchsticks under the now greatly-slowed volley of bullets.

Soi Fon winced as Tesla released a piercing, anguish-ridden shriek, his weapon dropping to the floor with a clatter; He tried to scramble away, back to where Menoly lay, and only Ggio's bulldog-tenacity held the blonde man in place; the one eyed man's fingernails were bleeding where they had lifted away from the skin in his wild attempt to claw himself from Ggio's arms.

"Let go of me!" he roared, "I have to help her! Don't you see her Ggio?! Menoly's-"

"Dead!" Ggio howled over the noise, tears in his eye and fury in his voice, "There's nothing you can do for her anymore Tesla, she's dead!"

The blonde froze, staring blankly at his friend before he began to heave racking, helpless sobs of shock and misery, and Ggio did something that neither he nor Soi Fon expected. He punched Tesla, hard.

Soi Fon blinked, almost startled through the crushing wave of emotion that was torpedoing through her in the home-turned-war-zone. The blow had shifted Tesla's already loose eye patch so that it had fallen away from his face, dropping around his neck like a strange piece of jewelry; the scaring on that side of his face was twisted, hard to look at so, so thick that the scar tissue had practically stitched his eyelids closed, leaving nothing but a blank expanse where his eye should have been.

"Get a hold of yourself! We don't have time to cry!" Ggio shouted despite the tears that were glittering in a fine gauze over his gold irises and spilling over onto his cheeks; Soi Fon recognized that the man was barely holding himself together despite his harsh words as she drew herself away from examination of Tesla's features, "Those motherfuckers killed her, Tesla! And they're going to kill us too if we don't do something! We can cry later, but now… we need to teach those sons of bitches what happens when they take one of us."

Tesla seemed not to hear at first, still touching his cheek where he had been hit, but after a moment he nodded, insane, empty fury building in his face. He picked up his gun from where it had fallen beside him and ratcheted out the magazine to check that there were bullets there, pressing on hand to the wound in his thigh.

"Yeah," the blonde said numbly, "Those bastards… they won't know what hit them. We'll tear them to pieces… I'll tear them to pieces…"

"Good man," Ggio sniffed, wiping his own cheeks as he turned to look at Soi Fon, "Do you have anything to fight with?"

"Just this," the dark haired woman replied, holding out a knife that she had grabbed from the counter and looking at it in disappointment.

"Well… just keep yourself safe then. Tes and I will take care of this mess,"

As he said that, the already destroyed front door was knocked back on its hinges by a strong kick, and Soi Fon realized something; it was just the three of them fighting against whatever came through the opening. Here there would be no help from the police, from civilians, from anyone at all. Just them.

She heard Ggio hiss angrily, catlike, as the taproom was entered by a handful of armed men and women, ten in total. Soi Fon watched through a gap in the bar, careful not to move, hardly breathing as she did so; the people were not uniformed, standing in the room in normal everyday clothing. They would have looked like a mall-going party but for the artillery in their hands.

As one, Ggio and Tesla stood and fired into the small crowd before dropping back behind their shield, rewarded by pained screams and heavy thuds as a few of the group fell to the floor. A heavy barrage of bullets came in their direction, and they heard the granite crack. The black haired man glanced at Soi Fon, Tesla heaving almost hysterical breaths behind him, and the woman replied by raising two fingers.

'Dead,' she mouthed to him, then raised a single finger, 'Hurt,'

Ggio closed his eyes and nodded, trying to slow his breathing.

"Are you all stupid?" a voice drawled, heavy footsteps following the question. Soi Fon watched Tesla seize up, Ggio's eyes shooting open in surprise at the sound, and she turned to look through the bullet-formed peephole she had been using. Her eyes widened as a very tall, lanky man ducked his way into the bar, a single, narrow eye sweeping the scene, "You fuckheads only got one of them, and they took out two of us."

"W-Well, we came in and didn't see anyone, but they're hiding behind the-" a man started.

"There are seven of you left-" the tall man said, his voice dangerously smooth before he was interrupted.

"Eight!" the wounded man on the floor panted, pushing himself up, "I can still-"

The tall man rolled his good eye, hefted the massive gun he held, and blew the injured man's brains out without so much as a wince or an apologetic look.

"Seven of you left," he continued as if nothing had happened, sweeping dark, oily hair out of his face, "And four of them at the most. And yet idiots couldn't figure out how to get around the little problem of smoking them out."

"Nnoitra, we just um… we…"

"Six," the man called Nnoitra called out, blowing holes in the chest of the woman who had spoke up, "I don't want excuses. Just tear the place apart and kill anything that moves."

With that, the group standing around their leader turned away and faced the bar warily, none of them wanting to take the lead in the charge.

"Nnoitra Gilga," Tesla breathed, "Why? Why him?"

"What?" Soi Fon whispered, looking at Ggio's pale, set face apprehensively.

"Oh, we're just pretty much fucked is all," the dark haired man replied with a humorless smirk, "But as long as we can take a good few of them with us, it should be okay, right?"

She watched as the man beside her shot upright, blowing a few more shots from his handgun before dropping back down, taking out two of the remaining six in the group, the bullet meant for the one called Nnoitra Gilga flying wide of its target. Tesla popped up half a second later and got off a few rounds as well, but not with nearly as much success; he only hit one man, in a nonfatal, but incapacitating blow.

Bullets were now whizzing over their heads, shattering bottles of alcohol and smashing chunks of granite out of the countertop with juddering force. Soi Fon thought she might be bleeding from the ears, but raised herself above the line of safety anyway and threw the knife in her hand in the way that her older brother had taught her- it was one of the only useful things she had learned as a child. The blade flew, and landed with a hearty thwack in the right side of the throat of one of the men at the back of the group. She snarled, as she had been aiming at the man in front of and to the left of the man she had actually hit, but she had killed one of them all the same. A loud report went off beside her, and she dropped to the ground with a cry, a burning streak of pain lancing across her cheek.

"Hey!" Ggio cried, not even making the pretense of trying to hide anymore, "Soi Fon!"

"I'm alright," she gasped, picking herself up as blood poured from the grazing gouge on her face, "They didn't get me too badly."

"Shit, did I miss then? I'm getting a bit rusty I suppose," Nnoitra laughed, "But guess what? You can't hide back there anymore,"

The three behind the bar started as one of the two remaining men from the group appeared at the open end of the bar, his face pale and scared as he leveled the rapid-firing gun in his hand. There was no time to say anything, Soi Fon flipping herself over the bar almost instinctively, catching sight of Tesla out of the corner of her eye as he jumped as well, crumpling on his injured leg when they hit the ground. There was a blaze of gunfire behind them, a shout- The dark haired woman twisted around as Tesla squeezed a couple rounds in the direction of the last man who still stood by the door; she was praying, praying harder than she ever had in her life that Ggio was still alive… and with that, the object of her prayers dropped down right in front of her, blood streaked and panting hard, but still alive.

They couldn't rest easy yet, however, as Soi Fon was reminded when Tesla pushed himself unsteadily to his feet with a horrific snarl, tears welling in his eye once more.

"You killed her," he said, his voice shaking, as he stared at the tall man "You killed Menoly."

Nnoitra waved his last minion away casually, and the last surviving man from the original group broke, backing out the ruined front door before running away like his life depended on it. It probably did.

"Tesla Lindocruz," Nnoitra purred, his already wide smile stretching further, "You were always such a good boy… such an obedient pawn, always prepared to do anything for your sister, isn't that right? But I didn't kill her… not personally at least. It's a pity; I would have liked to have made her scream like the time I took her eye. Do you remember that?"

The tall, dangerous man by the door had begun walking forward, slowly, keeping his tone conversational. Soi Fon could see Tesla shaking like a leaf, but whether it was with suppressed fury or with fear was anyone's guess.

"You shut up," Tesla growled, not moving aside from keeping his aim pointed at Nnoitra.

"Ah, it was a sweet sound, that high, keening shriek she made as I tore open her face… but you cried too, didn't you? You cried tears of blood for her… will you do it again?"

"You shut the fuck up!"

The barrel of Tesla's gun dropped a fraction of an inch.

"Tesla, MOVE!" Ggio suddenly screamed, and Soi Fon saw what was going to happen a split second before it did; the blonde man half-turned, confused, and Nnoitra dropped his gun, drawing a knife so large it could have been considered a short sword from a hidden sheath strapped to his thigh with a wicking sound. Using his long reach, the tall man lunged forward at the same time Ggio had shouted warning, ramming the blade through Tesla's exposed shoulder as the blonde lowered his gun in shock.

A small point of silver glittered through a new hole in Tesla's dirty white shirt, the tip of the blade showing exactly where the blade had exited. The one-eyed blonde swayed, a look of something that was less surprise than it was disappointment and apology. He made a brave attempt at a sad smile in Ggio's direction, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came forward was a gout of blood as Nnoitra jerked the blade back out of the man's body, planting a foot in his ribs to lever him off the metal he was impaled on. The kick to his side sent Tesla tumbling like a ragdoll to the floor where he lay still.

"How cute," Nnoitra laughed wildly, "The two siblings can stay together!"

Ggio simply stared, his face blank as if he could not comprehend what had just happened. Soi Fon sat at his side, equally stunned and not even able to react as her companion gained his feet slowly, deliberately, dangerously.

"You son of a bitch," the ochre eyed man grated out harshly at Nnoitra, "You motherfucking son of a bitch."

His tone was cold and level as he said this, no emotion tainting either his voice or his face as he took a step forward, his dark braid swinging behind him, and suddenly he was dashing forward, his gun forgotten on the floor. Soi Fon screamed at him as he barreled into the taller man like a cannon ball, carrying the both of them to the floor.

"That's right!" Nnoitra shrieked insanely as he pushed Ggio off his chest, "Fight with me Vega! Let me feel blood on my skin!"

The two grapplers writhed on the floor, and for an instant a picture of a barroom brawl superimposed itself over Soi Fon's sight, her mind trying to cope with what she was seeing. Ggio was on Nnoitra like a cat, his smaller size both an advantage and a drawback as he was continually shaken off by the larger man, continually slipping through Nnoitra's grip. Glass shards stood out like diamonds in the skin of both men, but neither seemed to notice. On the contrary, Nnoitra was laughing, even as Ggio slammed a fist into his face.

The knife in Nnoitra's hand was still kicking off sunflashes Soi Fon saw, and before she knew what she was doing she was starting forward as well, panic flooding through her as she watched the same blade that had killed Tesla streak across Ggio's calf. As she drew close Nnoitra rolled over, pushing Ggio off of him once more and pinning the smaller man to the floor despite the struggling.

Soi Fon grabbed the first thing that came to hand, a shard of what had once been a chair as Nnoitra swung his knife outward. The blade of that double-edged weapon grated across her ribs as she stepped forward, bringing the chair leg across the attacker's face like a baseball bat. Warm crimson washed down her side and she felt skin tear from her hands with the force of the blow she had given Nnoitra, but the taller man lost both his grip on the knife and his balance, giving Ggio enough time to scramble back out from under him.

Soi Fon watched as her companion went for Nnoitra's throat, his fingers pinching the man's windpipe closed and his short nails digging into the soft flesh hard enough to draw small crescents of blood. The tall man bucked under Ggio, tried to pry his fingers away from his airways, but Soi Fon could see that he was losing strength; Ggio, apparently impatient to end things, noticed something gleaming on his left. It was the gun that Nnoitra had dropped earlier.

Quick as a flash, and not even sure if the thing was loaded, Ggoi snatched the weapon up, and fired, point-blank into Nnoitra's face. There was a single spasm as the unnaturally thin man died, the same twitching movement seen when one decapitated an insect, and then no more movement.

But Ggio fired again.

And again.

And again.

"This is really good," Kisuke commented, dragging his tongue along an ice cream swirl that was perched atop his cone; he laughed and held the treat out of reach as Yoruichi swiped for it.

"Come on, let me have some!" the dark skinned woman complained playfully.

"You already ate yours! You're going to get fat," the blonde man joked, earning him a light hit to the arm as he handed his companion the ice cream. She bit the top off the swirl and then smiled up at him innocently. He leaned in close to her and kissed the corner of her mouth, "You had some on your face."

"Thank you, my noble opportunist," Yoruichi giggled, "But it's getting late… I should head home, or else Captain will probably start worrying like he usually does,"

"Guy's gonna end up giving himself a heart attack and dying young," Kisuke sighed, "But I gotta give him some credit, he's got all his stuff in order,"

"That he does," the violet haired woman agreed as the two began to walk back to the bar; she looped her arm through his and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Tired?" he wondered, poking her in the cheek with his free hand.

"A bit, but that's alright," Yoruichi smiled again, "I'm pretty sure being a bit tired is a worthy trade for getting to spend a day out with-"

The woman suddenly pulled up short, halting in her tracks and simply gazing ahead for a moment.

"What?" Kisuke wondered, following her line of sight. His murky-green eyes landed on the bar, or what used to be the bar. The sunset had turned the ruined, hole-filled walls red, the door hanging loosely from one hinge and swinging slightly in the breeze.

By unspoken agreement the two of them took off at run towards the destroyed building.